Apple lovers (I confess) love product announcements. Tech writers love dissecting the features of new Apple products but never quite criticize them for fear that they will fall out of Apple’s graces. (Consumers only care what you can do with a product, not what chip it has.) Yesterday (September 12, 2017), another product announcement was made by Apple. Here are my thoughts about the announcement that only the ten people reading this care to know.

If I were the number “9” I’d feel cheated.

I liked the way Tim Cook, an Auburn alumni, used a photo featuring an Auburn football player when introducing the new Apple TV. (Auburn football and Apple TVs are both hobbies of Cook.)

I also liked the way Tim Cook, a native of Alabama, still talks with an Alabama accent unlike other Alabama natives who don’t. Like me, for instance.

The presentation was the first consumer-facing event (vs. a developer event) that flooded the zone with tech-features. That was all back-story narrative related to Samsung. Typically, only tech reporters love comparing one bezel to another bezel. Consumers live in a completely different world where no one knows what the hell a bezel is.

Don’t buy a $1,000 iPhone unless you know why you are spending that much. If you are buying it to impress people, that makes sense: it’s a lot cheaper than buying a $50,000 car.

Wearing blue jeans with your shirttail out does not hide your Dad bod.

When we start to see the images of these disasters, our first impulse is “go help.”

However, I’ve also learned from writing about these disasters (and having one occur in my hometown) that it’s always better to give the local citizens and experienced officials and non-government agencies a few days to address the immediate needs and to assess what the longer-term needs will be.

As I’ve written before, in the first days of any disaster, for those of us not on the scene, the best way we can help is always: first, send money.

This is especially true when a disaster is so widespread as Hurricane Harvey appears to be.

Personally, and because of advice I’ve been given by individuals who have been on the front lines of such disasters, I contribute, in a designated way, to the Salvation Army as it is supposed to be one of the most efficient ways to support first-responder, essential needs efforts.

Of course, there are many groups through which you can make such contributions.

I keep forgetting. Am I supposed to stare at the sun until my eyeballs bleed? Or is it, poke holes in them with a pin?

(Notice: That was a satirical jab at the ubiquitous warnings not to stare at the sun. Do not attempt to stare at the sun or poke holes into your eyes. Don’t believe anything you read on the internet, either. Except, of course, when it concurs with something you already believe.)

How come so many people make reference to “total eclipse of the heart” when a better reference is “flew your lear jet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun.”

How to take a photo of the Eclipse: Wait until NASA takes photos and posts them on their website. Since NASA is funded by the federal government, such photos are public domain. So, you can *take* any photo they post and use it anyway you’d like.

In Nashville, the grocery stores were jammed up this morning — people looked like they were preparing for 1/2 inch of snow.

What’s going on, I asked someone.

Eclipse parties, they said.

Happy eclipse day. And don’t forget to stare at the sun, no wait, don’t forget not to do that.

Update (after the event.)

With the use of eclipse glasses I survived. I took a few bad photos during first few seconds of totality but then decided this should be a non-lens event.

I now know how a total eclipse is celebrated. People all over my neighborhood started cheering and a few even used up some July 4 fireworks. I even gave up a whoop or two.

Incredible is all I can say. Here are three photos from my backyard in Nashville.

Two years ago, I wrote a blog post titled, “The Confederate Flag is NOT a Part of who I Am,” right after the horrific Charleston church murders. The title was from the response Lindsey Graham (at the time a candidate in the GOP presidential primary) gave when a reporter asked him why the confederate flag should continue to fly on the grounds of the South Carolina capital. “It’s a part of who we are,” he said, somewhat baffled.

Flash-forward to today and another hate-crazed neo-nazi-zealot attempts a mass murder, this time in Charlottesville, by plowing his car into a group of people protesting the spewed-hatred of white nationalists.

Desperately looking for something positive I can say to end this post, I can only think of one way: Freed from being a GOP presidential primary candidate, Lindsey Graham now knows what the correct answer is when asked why people in the south should not wrap themselves up in confederate symbols.

When asked about the white nationalists, he did not hesitate to say, “Their cause is hate, it is un-American, they are domestic terrorists and we need more from our president,” Graham said.”

“This is an opportunity for the Trump administration to come down like a hammer on white supremacists,” Graham said. “And I hope they do.”

I grew up in a household where profanity was rarely uttered. At least in the presence of parents. I do recall that I had my mouth washed out with soap by my kindergarten teacher. I have a feeling such corporal punishment would now be verboten, no?

Anyway, this article showed up in my newsreader this morning and the first thing that popped into my mind was my kindergarten teacher who was, other than that time at the sink, a wonderful teacher:

A study published last year with the title “Frankly, We Do Give a Damn: The Relationship Between Profanity and Honesty,” notes, “the consistent findings (of) studies suggest that the positive relation between profanity and honesty is robust, and that relationship found at the individual level indeed translates to the society level.” It’s true, some research shows that people who swear may be likely to violate other social norms, god bless ‘em, but they are also less likely to lie during police interrogations.

Posts navigation

Launched in August, 2000, RexBlog.com is the personal blog of Rex Hammock, founder/ceo of Hammock Inc., a customer media and marketing services company founded in 1991 in Nashville. Rex is also founder/helper-in-chief of SmallBusiness.com.(...)